Biography Into Autobiography: Wole Soyinka and the Relatives Who Inhabit ‘Ake’

James Gibbs

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00011757

Biography Into Autobiography: Wole Soyinka and the Relatives Who Inhabit ‘Ake’

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

James Gibbs

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In fact, What became Ake started out with me wanting to write a biography of an uncle, a very remarkable uncle of mine, who is mentioned here, Daodu, Rev Kuti. I think some of you have heard of Fela, the Nigerian musician. Daodu was his father and a very remarkable individual.

Wole Soyinka in Jo Gulledge (ed.), ‘Seminar on Ake with Wole Soyinka’, in The Southern Review (Baton Rouge), 23, 3, July 1987, p. 513.

The publication of Ake: the years of childhood (London, 1981) won Wole Soyinka admirers among those who had never read his poetry, novels, newspaper articles, or criticism, never seen his films or plays. In a seminar on Ake which he gave in Louisiana during March 1987, Soyinka said that the autobiography had started from a desire to write a biography. He went on to say that he had ‘received letters about the book from the strangest parts of the world’.1 The autobiography was widely and favourably reviewed, it was awarded prizes and contributed to the elevation of Soyinka's reputation throughout the world—including Sweden, where he was subsequently presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 1988 , pp. 517 - 548

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00011757 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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^{Page 517 note 1} Wole Soyinka in Gulledge, loc. cit. p. 525.

^{Page 517 note 2} Sotto, Wiveca, ‘Soyinka and the Nobel Prize: the Swedish reaction’, in The Literary Half-Yearly (Mysore), 28, 2, 07 1987, pp. 11–16;Google Scholar and Gotrick, Kacke, ‘Why did Wole Soyinka Have to Wait so Long for the Nobel Prize?’, inGoogle Scholaribid. pp. 17–32.

^{Page 518 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 128.Google Scholar

^{Page 519 note 1} Compiled with help from I. A. Delano's publications and additional information from S. O. Biobaku, 1983. Bertha Amy Olubi was the daughter of the Rev. D. Olubi of Kudeti and of Abeokuta, related to the Onitesi of the Itesi; and Funmilayo Thomas was the daughter of Pastor Thomas and Adejonwo.

^{Page 520 note 1} Ibid.

^{Page 520 note 2} Ibid. p. 144.

^{Page 520 note 3} Coleman, James, Nigeria: the background to nationalism (Berkeley, 1958), p. 216.Google Scholar

^{Page 521 note 1} Awolowo, Obafemi, Awo (Cambridge, 1960), p. 133.Google Scholar

^{Page 521 note 2} Ibid. p. 147.

^{Page 522 note 1} Ibid. p. 148.

^{Page 522 note 2} Coleman, op. cit. p. 41.

^{Page 523 note 1} Soyinka, Wole, The Man Died: prison notes (London, 1972), p. 154.Google Scholar

^{Page 524 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{Page 524 note 2} Ibid. p. 139.

^{Page 524 note 3} Ibid.

^{Page 524 note 4} Ibid. p. 140.

^{Page 525 note 1} Ibid. p. 143.

^{Page 525 note 2} Ibid. p. 147.

^{Page 525 note 3} Ibid. p. 148.

^{Page 525 note 4} Akaraogun, Olu, interview with Wole Soyinka, in Spear (Lagos), 05 1966, p. 19.Google Scholar

^{Page 526 note 1} Soyinka, Wole, ‘On Ogun’, British Library, 1965.Google Scholar

^{Page 527 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

^{Page 527 note 2} Soyinka, Wole, ‘Madmen and Specialists’, in Collected Plays II (London, 1974), p. 239.Google Scholar

^{Page 527 note 3} Soyinka, Wole, ‘Flogging Women Offenders’, in Daily Express (Lagos), 4 11 1963.Google Scholar

^{Page 528 note 1} Awolowo, op. cit. p. 68.

^{Page 528 note 2} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 82.Google Scholar

^{Page 529 note 1} Ibid. p. 107.

^{Page 529 note 2} Soyinka, Wole, ‘Kongi's Harvest’, in Collected Poems II, pp. 61–2.Google Scholar

^{Page 529 note 3} ‘Gbohun-Gbohun- the Nigerian Playwright Wole Soyinka on his Dealings with the BBC’, in The Listener (London), 2 11 1972, p. 582.Google Scholar

^{Page 530 note 1} Ibid.

^{Page 531 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 155.Google Scholar

^{Page 531 note 2} Ibid. p. 7.

^{Page 532 note 1} Delano, Issac O., Josaiah Ransome-Kuti (London, 1968), p. 12.Google Scholar

^{Page 532 note 2} Ibid. p. 10.

^{Page 532 note 3} Ibid. p. 17.

^{Page 533 note 1} Ibid. p. 23–4.

^{Page 533 note 2} Ibid. p. 25.

^{Page 534 note 1} Ibid. p. 50.

^{Page 534 note 2} Ibid.

^{Page 534 note 3} Ibid. p. 52.

^{Page 535 note 1} Ibid. pp. 56–7.

^{Page 535 note 2} Ibid. p. 58.

^{Page 535 note 3} Ibid. p. 59.

^{Page 535 note 4} Ibid. p. 67.

^{Page 536 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 155.Google Scholar

^{Page 537 note 1} Ibid. p. 44.

^{Page 537 note 2} Ibid. p. 168.

^{Page 537 note 3} Ibid. p. 171.

^{Page 537 note 4} Ibid. p. 173.

^{Page 537 note 5} Ibid. p. 177.

^{Page 537 note 6} Ibid. pp. 178–9 and 180.

^{Page 538 note 1} Adewoye, O. (ed.), Background on Names of Roads and Halls (Ibadan, 1969), p. 22.Google Scholar

^{Page 538 note 2} Omibiyi, Mosunmola, ‘Nigerian Musicians and Composers’, in Nigeria Magazine (Lagos), 128–9, 11 1979, p. 79.Google Scholar

^{Page 538 note 3} Biobaku, S. O., personal communication.Google Scholar

^{Page 539 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 191.Google Scholar

^{Page 540 note 1} Soyinka, Wole, ‘Who's Afraid of Elesin Oba?’, Radical Perspectives on African Literature Conference, Ibadan, 1977, p. 22.Google Scholar See the photographs of Daodu, in Carlos Moore, Fela, Fela, This Bitch of a Life (London, 1982), pp. 28 and 34.Google Scholar

^{Page 541 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 24.Google Scholar

^{Page 541 note 2} Moore, op. cit.

^{Page 541 note 3} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 184.Google Scholar

^{Page 542 note 1} See Moore, op. cit. p. 43.

^{Page 542 note 2} Soyinka, , Ake, pp. 178–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 542 note 3} Soyinka, ‘Who's Afraid of Elesin Oba?’, p. 2.

^{Page 543 note 1} Moore, op. cit. has transcribed interviews with Fela, and with some of the men and women in his life, to produce a biography which throws some light on his ideas.

^{Page 543 note 2} Ibid. p. 131.

^{Page 544 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, p. 155.Google Scholar

^{Page 544 note 2} Osofisan, personal communication.

^{Page 545 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, pp. 78–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 545 note 2} Gibbs, James, interview with Wole Soyinka, British Council, London, 27 August 1982.Google Scholar

^{Page 546 note 1} Morell, Karen L., In Person: Achebe, Awoonor, and Soyinka (Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies, Seattle, 1975), p. 93.Google Scholar

^{Page 546 note 1} Soyinka, , Ake, pp. 145–6 and 161–2.Google Scholar

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